Raj relic: Civic body stumbles on unknown sewer network (Indian Express 14 September 2010)

While most of Edwin Lutyens’ architectural masterpieces like the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Parliament House are there for all to see, some of the engineering feats he and his engineers accomplished are now slowly coming to light.
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) discovered one such relic, when it started digging up Connaught Place for new subways. While digging the outer circle, they discovered a British-era drainage system till then unknown to the civic agency. It was an elaborate double barrel sewerage network made of bricks to drain sewage and rain water out of what was then the city’s main shopping area. Each barrel has a dimension of 6x3 feet.
The double barrel network were built in 1932, but the NDMC could not find any blueprint of the network in its archives. “The barrels surrounded the entire Outer Circle. There were two types of barrels—one for sewage and one for other drainage,” said NDMC spokesperson Anand Tiwari.
NDMC workers stumbled upon the double barrel system when they started digging for eight subways in the Outer Circle to make the commercial hub more pedestrian friendly. They found the barrels everywhere they dug and work had to be stalled. Work on the subways had begun on December 25 and was to be completed in eight months, by August.
“Even though we searched our archives, we could not find any reference to its existence. We did not know where they led to. We just did not know what to do with it at first,” said a senior official of NDMC. Finally, the barrels were diverted and work restarted on the subways.
But this delay means only three existing subways will be ready before the Commonwealth Games. Another reason for the delay has been NDMC’s decision to start work on all eight subways together. When the Traffic Police objected, saying the work was causing traffic jams, work on all the subways had to be stopped.
“Even though the barrels are old, they have not been abandoned as they are still in working condition. We have not removed them yet as the work on the subways has been stopped. Once it begins again, we will divert them at the points where the subways will obstruct their flow,” he said. The civic agency is giving finishing touches to the three subways.